So Jim Palmer was set to appear on Bob Haynie’s show earlier today. Knowing Bob like I do and knowing how much he loves O’s “old school” baseball, I’m sure he was geared up to talk with #22. I’ve interviewed Palmer before – as has Bob numerous times – but it’s still always good to have Palmer on the air. He’s the one guy in the organization who still tells the truth. So I’m sure Haynie was pumped up to have him on as a guest and I was pumped up to listen as I left the WNST parking lot.

Before I even got to the Beltway, I heard Bob say, “well, folks, Jim Palmer won’t be coming on with me today.”

And do you know why Palmer bailed on us this morning? I’ll break the story here at wnst.net for all of you to digest.

Because he was DIRECTED to cancel by the O’s front office.

Yep, Palmer told our people that he had received an e-mail from the O’s (he didn’t specify who sent the e-mail) informing him he was not to appear on WNST today.

How’s that for gutless?

So who made that call in the O’s front office today? As Tom Cruise asked in “A Few Good Men”, who ordered the code red?

John Angelos? Did he send Palmer the e-mail? If he did, he’s a coward.

Did Greg Bader send the e-mail and issue the edict to Palmer? If he did, he’s a coward.

Was it Bill Stetka, perhaps? He’s as anti-WNST as they come, so it wouldn’t shock me if he sent the e-mail. If it was Stetka, he’s a coward as well.

Regardless of who it was in the organization who directed Palmer to cancel the interview, there’s yet another indication of how screwed up the baseball franchise is in 2007.

Their TICKETS SOLD numbers through 20 home games are 37,000 down from the same time last year. The team is in chaos right now. They’ve just lost four straight games. And when the best all-sports radio station in town wants to give them “free publicity” and talk about their team, they go OUT OF THEIR WAY to keep you, the fans, from gathering any kind of first-hand information from one of their broadcasters. This really isn’t about WNST. We continue to talk about the baseball team even when they bend us over…this is about YOU, the listeners, who got gipped out of hearing one of the most intelligent baseball minds in the game (and one of our city’s most beloved sports heroes of the last 50 years) talk about the HOMETOWN team.

Cowards. I wish I knew who it was that sent that e-mail, but we’ll never find out because that’s another thing the team specializes in…not telling the public anything unless, of course, you’re telling it through a “partner” of the team who is providing REVENUE to the club.

Do these nitwits in the warehouse not understand that the fans who buy the tickets contribute REVENUE just like the broadcast partners they’ve hoodwinked into signing on with them? I mean, are they honestly that naive to not realize that the ticket-buying fans are the most important source of revenue generating they have? I’m a dummy and I can figure that one out.

All you do when you decide to remove the fans from the stream of information that’s distributed by the club is tell them “you’re not important enough.” That’s what the O’s did today. By pulling Palmer off of WNST, they told ALL OF YOU who were eager to hear Palmer’s views on the baseball team that YOU are NOT important. The ONLY way you’re important to the team is if you are either directly contributing money to them or if you’re listening or watching via one of their “rights holders” who have already written the O’s a check.

This is what the Orioles franchise has become. They are no longer a civic entity or a company that our community at large can take pride in. They are not really even a sports enterprise at this point. They have morphed into nothing more than “check collectors”.

Got a check for them? You’re their friend. Don’t have a check for them? Sorry, pal, we have no use for you.

By not allowing Jim Palmer to come on the air at WNST on Tuesday, they have once again proved what I’ve been saying for the better part of two years: They have no idea what they’re doing.